From the royal families in Europe successively marrying the women of the Holy Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, it can be seen that the relationship between a group of European countries and the Tang Dynasty is relatively close, at least they think so.
Although most of the time it was their wishful thinking, the Tang Dynasty would not break this tacit understanding. After all, the Tang Dynasty still wanted to drag them to resist the Tatars.
Under such circumstances, it was often difficult for the Tang Dynasty to go too far. In the past, when it came to the issues of African colonies and American colonies, the Tang Dynasty never used force to seize them. Instead, it adopted diplomatic means and finally spent money to seize some colonies.
Sell it over.
Does it mean that the Tang Dynasty cannot be captured by force?
Just kidding, Datang could snatch all these colonies with just a finger, but this would destroy Datang's overall strategy in Europe.
So Datang simply spent money to buy it.
The same is true now when we want to build a second strategic support point in Europe. We can't go too far, lest a group of foreign vassals feel discouraged and end up not working for the Tang Dynasty to resist the Tatars.
Therefore, it is possible to directly seize London as a strategic support point, but it cannot be done, at least not in recent years.
Vice Admiral Qiao Haozhong, you have to find another place!
And you can’t directly look for England or France, the homeland of the Spanish. These places are too troublesome and have a relatively large negative impact. After all, Europe is so big, you don’t have to cut off a piece of land from your allies to establish a second strategic support point.
There are many other places to choose from.
While patrolling the map, Vice Admiral Qiao Haozhong soon set his sights on the United Netherlands Provinces, or to be precise, on the northern part of the Netherlands Province.
This is a peninsula surrounded by the North Sea, Lake Marken, and Lake IJsselmeer, with Amsterdam to the south.
This place is a peninsula, which is easier to deploy, and more importantly, it is closer to the Tatars.
If this place is developed as a second strategic support point, once the preparations are complete, we can use this place as a starting point and then directly enter the European continent, which is more convenient than London.
However, this place belongs to the lowlands, the terrain is not very good, and it is too close to the Tatars. Once the Tang Dynasty makes large-scale operations here, it is estimated that the Tatars will immediately invade the United Netherlands.
The reason why today's Netherlands has not been annexed by the Tatars is that the Tatars deliberately reserved it for doing business with the outside world, especially with the Tang Dynasty.
If the Tang Dynasty wanted to occupy the Netherlands, as long as the Tatars were not stupid, they would not let it go.
Although the Tang army and navy were invincible all over the world, it was not possible to open a landing site in a distant European region, right under the eyes of the Tatars, and where the Tatar army could directly reach it.
It can be done, but there is no need to take this kind of risk.
After all, the Tang Dynasty is not planning to fight the Tatars personally on the European battlefield now, but is adopting a proxy war model. The Tang Dynasty will not send a large army to fight in person until the last European is dead.
If you want to avoid a direct large-scale battle with the Tatars, then you cannot have land connections with the Tatars. Islands close to the European continent are more suitable.
Therefore, Vice Admiral Qiao Haozhong set his sights on Denmark. Today, the Danish peninsula has been captured by the Tatars, and the Kingdom of Denmark can only survive on a few islands.
Because the Tatars control the Danish Peninsula, this also means that if you want to establish a strategic support point in this area, you will have to go to war with the Tatars.
However, Qiao Haozhong did not directly set his sights on the peninsula. The peninsula was too big. It would be easy to capture but difficult to hold for the thousands of troops that the Tang Empire could use in Europe. Moreover, this place was like the Dutch peninsula.
It is directly bordering the Tatar-controlled area by land, so there is no need to log in and rob it.
The place he is looking at now is several islands that are still controlled by the Kingdom of Denmark!
Taking into account many factors such as the convenience of shipping, the safety of waterways, development potential, strategic defense, and the convenience of subsequent attacks on the Tatars, he set his sights on the three major islands in Denmark.
That is, Funen Island, Lolland Island, and Zealand Island. These three islands are currently struggling to support the base camp of the Kingdom of Denmark. However, if it were not for the Tang Navy to help intercept the Tatar ships at sea, and the Swedes sent
Even if our troops help, we probably won't be able to defend it.
This archipelago is a good place. It is very close to the European continent, and it can also block the waterways in and out of the Baltic Sea. Moreover, the new capital of the Tatar Kingdom is in Berlin, which is not far from the sea. If Datang
If one day we organize a large army to set off directly from the Danish Islands and then land on the European continent, we can reach Berlin in less than a few hundred kilometers.
From this point of view, the importance of the Danish Islands is self-evident.
But the problem is that this place is still a territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, which has the same problems as London, and the problems are even more serious.
London is only the capital of England, but these islands are now the entire Kingdom of Denmark.
The Kingdom of Denmark, like other European kingdoms, is also the younger brother of the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty cannot just destroy the country just for the sake of a base.
Basically all countries in Europe are the younger brothers of the Tang Dynasty, including the Ottoman Empire and Spain.
With the support of the Tang Dynasty, these young men are desperately resisting the Tatar invasion. Every year, no one knows how many people die in the war.
They worked hard to fight for the Tang Dynasty at the front, and then the Tang Dynasty destroyed their country later. If they do this, there is a chance that many people will turn around and defect to the Tatar Kingdom tomorrow.
In recent years, the Tatar Kingdom has been trying to relax and even recruit European countries to free up its hands to resist the Tang Dynasty's Western Expedition on the eastern front.
Therefore, the Tang Dynasty could not destroy the Kingdom of Denmark casually.
But if the Kingdom of Denmark is not destroyed, can Datang directly establish a military base there?
Small military bases don't matter, but large ones are counted on, and localization will not pass the test no matter what.
Datang attaches great importance to the localization of overseas territories, especially the localization of strategic locations.
Take the Island of Ceylon, for example. In order to build this place into a large military base, the Tang Dynasty transferred all the indigenous people on the island to the Indian Peninsula!
Another example is Ceuta. Troops are used to patrol the outermost area and an uninhabited area is established. In the inner area, a simple fence about hundreds of kilometers long is built based on the local terrain to ensure that no indigenous people can secretly cross into the large area.
The area where people of the Tang Dynasty lived.
As for the innermost circle, it is a high wall about ten kilometers long!
Except for the army, basically no one from the Tang Dynasty would leave the wall and go to the no man's land.
This is the case in Ceuta, and here in the Danish Islands, don't expect the Tang Dynasty people to live together with the indigenous people and then establish any military base.
But Qiao Haozhong thought this place was quite good. As long as several thousand troops were stationed up there and a fleet was sent to assist in defense, it would be impossible for the Tatars to attack the island no matter how they attacked.